This is almost as good as sending that "Happy birthday to this future president" tweet around every October. It was 2018 when GQ correspondent asked people to please stop wishing her a Merry Christmas. The tweet was accompanied by a piece entitled, "Please don't with me 'Merry Christmas': It's impolite and alienating to assume I follow your religion."
She wrote:
Christmas is a lovely holiday, but it is definitely not a secular one. It is a celebration of Christ, as its very name implies. As a Jewish person, I have zero problems with your celebrating the birth of a person you believe is God’s only son, who grew up to die for your sins. I don’t share your faith, but I don’t begrudge you the joy of your celebration. In fact, I often participate, as I will this year when I bring Christmas presents wrapped in Christmas paper to a Christmas dinner with my friends and their sweet children. There’s no problem here: We know, respect and celebrate each other’s differences.
…
To say it’s off-putting to be wished a merry holiday you don’t celebrate — like someone randomly wishing you a happy birthday when the actual date is months away — is not to say you hate Christmas. It is simply to say that, to me, Julia Ioffe, it is alienating and weird, even though I know that is not intended. I respond: “Thanks. You, too.” But that feels alienating and weird, too, because now I’m pretending to celebrate Christmas. It feels like I’ve verbally tripped, as when I reply “You, too!” to the airport employee wishing me a good flight. There’s nothing evil or mean-spirited about any of it; it’s just ill-fitting and uncomfortable. And that’s when it happens once. When it happens several times a day for a month, and is amplified by the audiovisual Christmas blanketing, it’s exhausting and isolating. It makes me feel like a stranger in my own land.
Her own land? Sounds like colonization to us.
On the contrary — we think it's polite to wish people Merry Christmas. You don't have to assume someone follows your religion to wish you a happy December 25. Instead of feeling alienated, you can indeed just say, "Thanks, you too," and move on with life.
It's that time of year again. Don't forget to wish a Merry Christmas to @juliaioffe. pic.twitter.com/uCzUeA6DFh
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas, especially to @juliaioffe pic.twitter.com/zRnY4gP8QW
— THE Suburban Jerk (@SuburbanJerk) December 25, 2023
#MerryChristmas to you @juliaioffe
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) December 25, 2023
These people are so miserable lol
— Cameron Gilliam (@CameronJGilliam) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas @juliaioffe from another friendly atheist!
— Dr. Oliver Clothesoff Ph.D (@dei_gratia_zack) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas @juliaioffe
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 25, 2023
Regardless if you celebrate it or not people are gonna tell you that anyway. A simple "same to you" will suffice no need to be extra for clout smh.
— Quiandre Floyd (@Awesome_Andre36) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas!
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 25, 2023
Although I'm Jewish, I can't hesitate wishing her a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart
— Shlomo Gutwein (@shlomogutwein) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas @juliaioffe 🎄😂 pic.twitter.com/wXNjRfVwra
— 🌒 XTroll (@XTrollRockNRoll) December 25, 2023
Merry Christmas! @juliaioffe ! You don’t have to “share my religion” in order for me to wish you good cheer on a day to which I ascribe significance. That is the beautiful thing about being free! I am free to wish good cheer to others, and they are free to be grumpy ole butts! 😃
— UFO Weekly (@WeeklyUfo) December 25, 2023
Americans have given up a lot to placate woke culture, but we're not giving up on this.
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